The Metropolitan Museum of Art as an Adjunct of Factory: Richard F. Bach and the Resolution Between Gilman’s Temple and Dana’s Department Store

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the metaphors used by museum leaders in the early twentieth century. Richard F. Bach’s metaphor for the Metropolitan Museum of Art as an adjunct of factory is positioned as a philosophical resolution between those of two prominent contemporaries: Benjamin Ives Gilman’s metaphor of the art museum as a temple and John Cotton Dana’s metaphor of the museum as a department store, which are often viewed by historians in a dichotomy of unresolved tension. While examining differences in institutional agendas suggested by these metaphors, this article illuminates the common goal among them: Museums explicitly saw themselves as serving an essential role in American society to refine public taste and the aesthetic sophistication of their audiences. A close analysis of the metaphors reveals three historical models that offered varying visitor experiences for exercising good taste.